Federal Science And Engineering Obligations To Academic And Nonprofit Institutions Reached Record Highs In FY 2003

by Richard Bennof

Statistics from the National Science Foundation
(NSF) Survey of Federal Science and Engineering
Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions
show that federal agencies obligated a new high of
$26.7 billion to higher education institutions for academic
science and engineering (S&E) activities in FY 2003,
an increase of $2.2 billion (9 percent in current dollars)
over FY 2002 levels (table 1). This increase follows a 9
percent current-dollar increase (nearly 7 percent in
constant dollars) in total federal academic S&E support
between FY 2001 and FY 2002.

Categories of Support

Federal academic S&E obligations are divided into six
categories: research and development (R&D), which
has accounted for 84–87 percent of total federal academic
S&E obligations over the last decade (figure 1);
R&D plant; facilities and equipment for S&E instruction;
fellowships, traineeships, and training grants (FTTGs);
general support for S&E; and other S&E activities.

Federal academic R&D support reached a new high of
$22.8 billion in FY 2003, nearly an 8 percent current-dollar
increase (6 percent in constant dollars) over the
previous year. The Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) accounted for 63 percent ($14.3 billion)
of all federal academic R&D obligations in FY 2003
(table 2) and 60 percent of the total R&D increase
from FY 2002 to FY 2003.

Federal support in FY 2003 for R&D plant grew by 141
percent, from $301 million in FY 2002 to an unprecedented
level of $727 million. The National Institutes of
Health (NIH) (within HHS) was directly responsible
for 90 percent of the academic R&D plant spike. The
one-time major investment in academic facilities from
NIH (NIH stated that it would not be repeated in FY
2004) was highlighted by increases exceeding $100
million at both Boston University and the University of
Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Seven other
universities reported increased facilities funding from
NIH of at least $10 million each.

University Shares

The Johns Hopkins University (including its Applied
Physics Laboratory) continued to be the leading
academic recipient of federal academic S&E support in
FY 2003 (table 4). Together, HHS and DoD provided
Johns Hopkins with almost four-fifths of its federal
S&E funds. Nearly $6 of every $7 in the university's
total federal S&E obligations ($1.14 billion) supported
R&D programs, with most of the remainder allocated
to other S&E activities.

The top 20 universities in terms of federal academic
S&E obligations accounted for 34 percent of the
federal academic S&E total in FY 2003. Nineteen of
these 20 academic recipients were also ranked among
the top 20 recipients in the previous year. Boston
University (ranked 17th in FY 2003, jumping from 32nd
in FY 2002) replaced Cornell University (ranked 21st in
FY 2003, dropping from 18th the prior year). About $5
of every $6 of the $153 million dollar surge in academic
S&E support to Boston University was attributable to
the $128 million supplied by NIH for R&D plant
programs in FY 2003.

Federal S&E Support to Nonprofit Institutions

The National Science Foundation collects statistics on
federal obligations to independent nonprofit institutions
for two of the six S&E categories—R&D and R&D
plant. Such federal obligations increased by over 8
percent, to a new high of $5.7 billion, between FY 2002
and FY 2003 (table 5). Most of the increased funding
was from HHS, primarily from NIH. Massachusetts
General Hospital received the most federal R&D and
R&D plant funds among nonprofits in FY 2003, with
HHS providing most of its support. The 10 top-ranked
nonprofit institutions in terms of these federal funds in FY 2003 received 29 percent of the total funding to all
nonprofits. Seven of these 10 nonprofit recipients were
hospitals or medical research institutes. Each of these
leading 10 nonprofits in FY 2003 also ranked among the
top 10 in the prior year. Of all nonprofit recipients that
were not hospitals or medical research institutes, the
Mitre Corporation received the largest amount ($187
million) of federal R&D and/or R&D plant obligations.[3]

Data Notes

The federal academic S&E obligations data to academic
and nonprofit institutions presented in this InfoBrief
were obtained from 18 agencies that participated in the
FY 2003 Survey of Federal Science and Engineering
Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions.
The survey collects federal S&E support data by
funding agency, institution, type of activity, type of
institution, and geographic location. The full set of detailed
statistical tables on the FY 2003 Survey of Federal
Science and Engineering Support to Universities,
Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions will be available
online at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/.

NSF makes available computer-generated institutional
profiles for individual doctorate-granting institutions and
for schools with S&E departments that grant master's
degrees. These profiles contain data from this survey
and from NSF's other two academic S&E surveys: the
Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at
Universities and Colleges and the Survey of Graduate
Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.
Data from the three surveys are also available on
the Web (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/) and on NSF's
WebCASPAR database system, a Web tool for retrieval
and analysis of statistical data on academic S&E
resources (http://webcaspar.nsf.gov).

[1] Academic S&E obligations that cannot be assigned elsewhere and activities in support of technical conferences, teacher institutes, and programs aimed at increasing precollege and undergraduate students' scientific knowledge.

[2] Funds used for scientific projects and support for activities within a specified discipline; explicit purpose is not specified.

[3] During editing of the FY 2003 Federal S&E Support database,
NSF revised DoD's support to the nonprofit Mitre Corporation
at $211,508,000 for FY 2001 (previously reported by DoD as 0).
DoD subsequently reviewed and concurred with these estimates.